Gold Coast childcare providers fear if the lockdown continues parents may pull kids from services
The lockdown is causing chaos for Coast childcare providers, with one saying it's been a "massacre". But there's great news for parents keeping kids home. READ MORE>>>
Gold Coast
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GOLD Coast families having to keep children out of child care centres do not have to use their 42 days of allowable absences during the eight-day lockdown.
The Australian government says services in a Commonwealth-declared Covid-19 hotspot can access additional allowable absences if the declaration extends for more than seven days.
This means families still have absences to use once restrictions are lifted. It also ensures children remain enrolled and providers can continue to receive the child care subsidy.
Little Scholars founder and Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland vice president Jae Fraser said for providers the lockdown was no different (that previous ones).
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"Providers are concerned that if the lockdown does go on too long, without additional financial support for families, we could see withdrawing their children from care which puts viability on the sector and its future at risk," he said.
'Throughout this pandemic our incredible team of educators step up and always provide the very best care and education. Similar to our health care professionals, they are also heroes of this pandemic."
Lucy Cook, of Amaze Education, said she was having a "massacre" for outside school hours care and on Monday were expecting 77 children but got seven.
"That’s a lot of staff without hours and no job keeper, or revenue for us," she said.
"Secondly, the kindy families are upset as they are all trying to do the right thing and keep kids at home though they still have to pay the gap as we don’t get government relief like we did in 2020, jobkeeper plus child cares subsidy funding.
"In the past for short lockdowns we have generously offered families 50 per cent off but there’s no way we can sustain this this time.
"But we are always happy to support our staff, families and children. We maintain our high health and safety standards and will do everything we can to make it through."
Mr Fraser said like previous lockdowns, Little Scholars remained open for all families who are considered essential workers and also for vulnerable and at risk children.
"It is important that young children continue to have consistency and a sense of normal during these challenging times, so all of our education and care services are open and operating under COVID-safe conditions as they usually would," said Mr Fraser.
"As a family-owned local business, we are very grateful that we are able to continue to provide child care and education services so our valued essential workers and families can continue taking great care of the community.
"Through all previous lockdowns, we made a commitment to our employees that we would always ensure they had job security to ensure that we can continue to provide the very best education and care to all children and their families and we are making the same commitment this time.
Staff turnover ‘ridiculous’ as Coast childcare centres on knife’s edge
May, 2021
GOVERNMENT policy, a lack of quality staff and qualified educators demanding directors’ wages are threatening to derail the city’s childcare centres.
As a result, Gold Coast parents believe their children are not getting continuity of care and one father says there is a “ridiculous turnover of staff” at his childcare centre.
“They have a new staff member every week it seems, which is hard when you want (the children) to connect with someone,” he said.
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It’s not just parents who’re exasperated, the childcare industry’s peak body says the state’s Education Minister was the only one not to extend the transitional arrangements to assist the sector in meeting newly introduced requirements.
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This requires a second bachelor-trained early childhood teacher at each early learning centre before the end of 2021.
Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland (ACA Qld) president Majella Fitzsimmons said the decision could put the childcare arrangements of Gold Coast families in jeopardy and there were not enough qualified educators and teachers to fill all vacancies.
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Little Scholars founder and ACA Qld vice president Jae Fraser said despite offering over-award wages, additional leave and annual bonuses to recruit and retain early childhood teachers, they continually lost staff to the school system.
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He operates 10 centres including Ashmore, Burleigh, Ormeau, Nerang and Yatala.
“It is very hard to ensure that we can meet the continual changes in regulatory requirements when they continually change,” he said.
Providers unable to meet the National Quality Standard’s requirement of two qualified early childhood teachers must apply for a service waiver that needs approval by the department.
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“If a service is not meeting the qualification requirement, it could also mean their kindergarten programs will not be fully funded, further exacerbating the issue,” he said.
About 70 per cent of Queensland children receive their approved kindergarten program in a centre-based (long day) care service.
Amaze Education owner Lucy Cook — who operates 11 centres, three of which are the Gold Coast — said an oversupply of centres was contributing to the problem.
“Plus, COVID slowed training right down as centres weren’t taking practical students and some dodgy training institutes keen to sign people off just did it anyway. So now there are a whole lot of crap graduates,” she said.
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However, she said centres struggled to get adequate staff to run kindergarten programs and most centres would not be able to comply when the changes take place at the end of the year.
“The schools who pay much more still attract most of them. The others coming in to childcare name their price and conditions which often are more than the director wage.”
While she’s applied for and received $30,000 for five centres over the next two years as part of the government’s new Plan Your Future Workforce Grant, wages are low and conditions remain hard in the childcare sector.
“Only the very special people work in early childhood and not many men are attracted I believe because they can’t sustain a family on one wage,” she said.
WHAT COAST FAMILIES WILL GET FROM BUDGET
May 11, 2021
THOUSANDS of Gold Coast families financially crippled by the pandemic are unlikely to benefit from the government’s proposed $1.7b child care reforms, with changes not taking effect until July 2022.
It’s hoped changes will incentivise more parents to return to work and take on additional hours. Families with two or more children in care will have their subsidies boosted by up to 30 per cent, a maximum of 95 per cent, for the second child and subsequent child.
The government suggests the change will benefit a quarter of a million families, by an average of $2260 per year.
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The policy also help couples with a combined income of more than $189,390, by removing the subsidy cap that restricts them to a maximum of $10,560 per child a year.
Little Scholars founder Jae Fraser, who advocates on behalf of the Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland branch, has 10 centres including Ashmore, Burleigh, Ormeau, Nerang and Yatala.
“Yes it’s amazing news for families down the track, but not for those who need it right now,” he said.
“We’ve got families who are struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Realistically, because the changes aren’t taking place until 2022, parents aren’t going to see the financial benefits until 2023, so that’s a long time to wait.”
Mr Fraser said overall the changes were moving in the right direction, but that the government, and society in general, failed to consider the critical benefits of early learning.
He said studies showed for every dollar invested in early childcare, society received $2 back over a child’s life, with a US study saying the economic return was $7.30 for every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood education.
“We need to stop looking at childcare as somewhere to put kids so parents can go to work, it’s about realising how crucial early learning, looking at educational outcomes and the long-term benefits to society.”
Coombabah mother Sharmani Facey didn’t return to the workforce full time after the birth of Cali, 3, and Koa, 21 months, because she would have only earned an extra $100 a week by doing so because of the cost of childcare.
Her children attend Harmony at Hope Island, a centre that opened in February with a new physical literacy program, designed in partnership with the University of Canberra and Deakin University in a $2 million research project.
Ms Facey, who recently retrained as a childcare worker and is returning to work three days a week, won’t benefit from the changes because her daughter starts school in 2022.
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Harmony chief executive Peter Warner said the changes would help families tremendously but “one conversation somewhat left off the national agenda is the impact of this rapidly changing post 2020 environment on our children during some of the most crucial years of their learning and development”.
“If we can’t maintain a normal learning environment for young children, we may face harmful impacts on their learning, development and associated social skills during crucial development years.”
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Amaze Education general manager Lucy Cook commended the changes, saying the annual cap was a major disincentive for secondary income earners when deciding how many days to work.
“However there is always more to be done, we need to ensure that every child in Australia has access to high quality, affordable and sustainable early education services, and therefore an amazing start to learning,” she said.
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